"Playing dead again are we?" Milo quipped, his voice bringing me back to life.

I forced my eyes open, giving a weak chuckle as blood spat from my mouth. I had definitely broken some bones from the fall and I for sure had a concussion, if I hadn't already.

Milo helped me to my feet as I looked around. I was inside a very expensive-looking lobby. After I passed out, Milo must have carried me into the main building.

I looked around the room. "Well, this is cozy," I managed to mutter, wincing as I pressed a hand to my aching ribs.

The place looked like it had been ripped out of the movies, all sleek lines and pristine white tiles. A few plush couches were scattered around the room, they looked brand new and very uncomfortable - that's how you knew they probably cost more than a new car. A large marble reception desk sat in the middle of the room and a series of halls and doors sprawled out behind the desk...

It dawned on me.

"Where's Leo?" I asked Milo as my heart began to race.

"He stayed back so I could get you in here."

"Well I'm in here, so where is he?" I demanded, the inner Leo coming out in my voice.

"WE aren't going anywhere," Milo said as he handed me his satchel. "I'm going to go get him, once I leave, you need to shut the door behind me."

Leo pushed a button next to the door and the door to the building opened.

"I'm coming with..." I began to say.

"We don't have time for this Newt," Milo interjected.

He took a deep breath in, looking out the door to the awaited chaos. But as he ran out the door, Leo's voice echoed from behind some buildings.

"FUCK!"

I looked out the door past Milo to see Leo hobbling towards us, a horde of robo-cats followed close behind him. Milo ran back in through the door as I backed up quickly, ready to push the button as soon as Leo made it in.

"Shut it!" Leo yelled as he leaped through the door.

I slammed my finger on the button. The door slammed shut.

Thuds and clangs reverberated from the other side of the large door. Leo and Milo quickly ran around the room, gathering a bunch of couches and coffee tables, and stacked them up against the door. If the machines were to break through the door, there was no chance that a couple of couches and a few flimsy tables were going to do anything to protect us. But somehow it still made me feel better to know they were there.

I sat at the reception desk as Milo and Leo looked around the building. After a few minutes, Milo called us into one of the rooms that connected to the lobby. It was a dimly lit computer lab. The majority of the light in the room came from the computer screens that were spread out on individual desks about the room. A large screen sat at the front of the room next to the door, emitting a bright blue light, the words 'no input detected' floated across the screen.

Milo walked over to one of the computers, Leo followed him over and sat down next to him. I slowly made my way to the back of the room, wincing with every step, it was darker back there, and I figured I could hide the pain better in the dark, especially now that the adrenaline was leaving my body.

Milo's fingers flew across his tablet like a maniac as he talked with Leo.

I leaned against the wall at the back of the room, my ribs felt like they were on fire but the cold surface soothed them. Something stuck into my back from the wall, I turned to see what looked like a large vault-like handle.

"Could you just do what I ask without arguing, just once?" Milo snapped at Leo. "It'll work."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"What'll work?" I asked.

"Social engineering," Milo said like I had any idea of what that meant. "I've got all the info right here. I just need Leo to call IT support and use that charm of his to get us access to the network."

"You should have told me this was the plan," Leo said gruffly.

"You would have said no, and now, you can't," Milo said with a slight smirk as he grabbed the landline phone next to the computer, dialed in a number, and held it up to Leo. "Your name is Tyler Hawthorne, you are the VP of Operations."

Leo grabbed the phone, cleared his throat, and after a moment of silence.

"This is Tyler Hawthorne, VP of Operations. I request immediate access to the network," Leo said in his most authoritative tone.

I drifted in and out of the conversation, it was pretty boring. Milo would show Leo some info on his tablet and Leo would repeat the information into the phone. They went back and forth for a while and after a few minutes Leo's stern, serious face hinted at a smile.

"Understood, thank you for your cooperation," Leo said before hanging up the phone.

Milo's fingers moved from the tablet to the keyboard as he began typing. "We're in," he said as his body relaxed slightly.

I looked at Leo, his smile had disappeared as he looked off into the distance, his brain a million miles away.

"What's up?" I said, looking at Leo.

Leo snapped out of his trance, looking over to me.

"Oh, I don't know, that seemed way too easy. It's strange," he replied.

"We were just attacked by robotic tigers, this whole thing is strange," Leo said.

Leo rolled the chair he was sitting on in front of the computer, next to Milo's. "Can you get me access to this computer?" He said to Milo.

Milo typed away on the keyboard, a few moments passed before the screen that Leo was sitting in front of sprang to life, and icons filled the screen.

Milo and Leo filed through documents on the computer as I slunk my way around the room. Looking about, trying to take my mind off of the pain.

"There are two documents here I can't get access to, Project Q and Project R," Leo said as he looked over to Milo.

"I'll have a look in a moment, but I managed to find this..." Milo looked up at the large screen at the front of the room.

My eyes followed as the blue glow of the screen switched over to mirror Milo's monitor. Information flooded the screen, I squinted at the sudden brightness, trying to read the document.

The very official-looking document contained only two short sentences, 'Project Talos has been terminated. Cease all operations immediately.'

"Terminated?" Leo's said as his brow furrowed.

"What the hell?" I said, raising my voice too loud.

"Quiet!" Leo hissed as the banging against the lobby door erupted into a furious drumming.

The three of us stayed quiet until the noise calmed.

"My bad," I whispered.

"The document's dated over a month ago," Milo said, bringing our attention back to the document. "It doesn't make any sense. If the experiment was a failure, why are we here?" Milo asked as he continued flicking through documents on the computer.

"Maybe because it wasn't a failure, maybe whatever it was worked too well," Leo said.

Milo and I exchanged a look before bursting into laughter. I grabbed a hold of my ribs as the burning became excruciating from the laughter.

"Both of you, shut up!" Leo snapped as the robots began to thrash at the door again. Only quieting after we did.

Leo tried to bring our attention back to the task. "Did you find anything on where this 'project' could be?"

It dawned on me. "Guys."

"Nothing yet, maybe in those project files you couldn't open?" Milo said.

"Surely it's somewhere at the facility, why else would they tell us to come here?" Leo said.

"Guys," I tried again, a little louder as I began walking to the back of the room.

"What?" Leo said as he looked over at me.

I pointed to the wall at the back of the room, the one with the large vault-like door handle. "Could it be behind this?"

Milo and Leo looked back at the wall, the brightness of the screen now made the back of the room bright enough to see that it wasn't just a wall, but a large metal door.

"Um, yeah, I think that could be it," Milo said.

"Ya think?" I said.

Leo slowly stood up, making his way over to the door. As he reached the door he pressed his hand up against the metal.

"It's cold as ice," he said as he moved his hand over to the door handle.

Leo turned the handle, but it didn't budge.

"Hold on," said Milo still at the computer.

Milo navigated the system from the computer, lines of code scrolled across the screen as Milo typed.

"Here goes nothing," Milo said as he looked towards Leo holding the door handle. Milo pushed a button on the keyboard and immediately, there was a large, booming clank that echoed through the room.

Leo turned the handle clockwise, his muscles tensed as the handle rotated. The door's seal released with a hiss. Leo pulled on the handle and the door inched open. I crept closer to the widening gap, craning my neck to see inside.

I saw, nothing. The room was dark. A cold draft spilled out of the room. I went to step into the room, but Leo's hand shot out, grabbing me.

"Wait," he said. "It could be a trap."

Milo walked over to us. "I didn't see anything in the system that showed any traps."

Leo ignored Milo as he traced the edges of the door and the entrance.

"Looks clear," he said after a while.

Milo rolled his eyes. "From what I could make out, it's some sort of advanced machine prototype we're here for."

"Like the tigers?" Leo asked.

"Or like a time machine?" I said excitedly.

Milo smiled. "Yeah, maybe."

Leo took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and stepped into the room.